at Sea
Seas are moderately rough but we are really moving fast which makes it much more stable aboard.
We have set up a dinner for those that were on the last overland excursion on April 28. Oscar promises to bring pazcki’s.
We received more travel bags from Holland America. These are large duffel bags with wheels. I think we will pack one of these and include them with the other three packed bags that we brought. We will take our clubs on the plane and check them.
We went to the port talk this morning hosted by Kimberley. She spoke about our next port of call, Takoradi. We didn’t learn anything new and it confirmed for us that this is a very poor country and they is very little of interest to see. It is not easy to blend in with the community to be on the safer side. People from the cruise ship stick out here more than any other country that we have been to. Most of the folks we spoke with are staying aboard the ship if they do not have a HAL excursion. There is very little in the positive sense on the West Coast of Africa.
We will cross both the prime meridian and the equator tomorrow. We will move one hour closer to the time at home and will be only three hours ahead.
Group trivia. What was the most popular boy’s name in 1960, 1970, and 1990. Which bird is the state bird for 7 states. Which ingredient makes up 60% of Velveeta? Which Elvis Presley racing movie has Ann Margaret saying “I want you to check my motor, it’s whistling”? What is 37.8 C in F? The numbers at afternoon trivia seem to be down. People generally like to do trivia to learn something but Thomas has different views on this. I think he gets irritated that everyone teases him on pronunciations. His first language is Dutch. Some pronunciations are hilarious.
We sat out on the promenade deck today. Our balcony didn’t have much airflow and was getting too warm. We like sitting out here and on our next cruise we will have a lanai room that opens to this deck. Much like our cruise in 2019.
We keep seeing people that look like they just got on. Probably in Maputo or Zanzibar. It’s not that you can recognize everyone but newcomers seem to stand out because they are not used to how things run. Every ship runs a bit differently.
There was a display of artwork and other things on the Lido deck last week. They were there to raise money for a charity. All of the items were auctioned off. Some of things were unusual. One was to co-host team trivia with Tomas. The opening bid was $25.00. I bid $26 but the winner bid $80. Today, the co-host did the evening group trivia. Thomas made up all of the questions and they took turns. Thomas made questions for himself that were ridiculously easy. Which day follows Saturday? The cohost, which he referred to as Thomasina had very difficult questions, some were in Dutch. The trivia event was a mess. The co-host didn’t know how to use a mic, could barely pronounce or mis-pronounced some common words. Can I get my life back? I wanted 45 mins back.
The evening entertainment were the Zuiderdam singers and dancers. We skipped that and played cards.